Daily Learning Goals and Terms
ANTH 103–Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
WEEK #1:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are student expected to do in this class and how will they be
assessed?
→ go over syllabus (hard copies available on Angel; will be
distributed next week)
WEEK #2:
MONDAY, JANUARY 19
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is anthropological fieldwork like?
→ watch film “A Man Called Bee” about Napoleon Chagnon’s
fieldwork among the Yanomamo peoples of Brazil (Amazonian
rainforest)
B. Terms to know
none
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are the four sub-fields of anthropology and how do they differ from
one another?
 What ideas about non-Western peoples tended to dominate the popular
imagination in the late 1800s, just before anthropology was born as a
discipline?
 What is social evolutionism and how is it related to (and different from)
Darwin’s ideas of evolution?
B. Terms to know
four-fields approach
cultural anthropology
archaeology
physical or biological anthropology
linguistic anthropology
Charles Darwin
Scientific racism
Extinction discourse
evolution
social evolutionism/evolutionism/unilineal evolution
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What ideas about non-Western peoples tended to dominate the popular imagination
in the late 1800s, just before anthropology was born as a discipline?

What is social evolutionism and how is it related to (and different from) Darwin’s
ideas of evolution?
B. Terms to know
Charles Darwin
Scientific racism
Extinction discourse
evolution
social evolutionism/evolutionism/unilineal evolution
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is Franz Boas’s critique of race?
➔ Is this critique of race still valid today?
 How do Boas’s ideas about culture differ from the ideas of the social evolutionists?
 What enduring concepts has he contributed to cultural anthropology?
B. Terms to know
Franz Boas
biological determinism vs. cultural constructionism
historical particularism
cultural relativism
holistic
WEEK #2
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
Learning Objectives for the Day
 What does the following article tell us about an important goal of anthropology?
➤”Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” by Horace Miner
 What is culture, and what are some of its key features?
Terms to know
culture
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is the difference between ethnography and ethnology, and how are they
related?
 What is anthropological fieldwork and what methods does it involve?
 What is so paradoxical about the method of participant-observation?
 What do the following readings tell us about the personal challenges of conducting
fieldwork?
➤ “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari,” by Richard Lee
➤ “Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief,” by Richard Kurin
➤ “The Midday Sun and other Hazards,” by Douglas Raybeck
➤ Wisdom from a Rainforest, by Stuart Schlegel
B. Terms to know
Bronislaw Malinowski
ethnography
ethnology
participant-observation
kinship charts
census
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What was fieldwork like in rural Senegal?!
B. Terms to know
Senegal
Wolof peoples
WEEK #3:
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are some advantages and disadvantages of long-term participantobservation as a method for collecting data about society and culture?
B. Terms to know
emic/etic perspective
ideal versus real culture
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 Why might cultural relativism pose ethical dilemmas for the anthropologist?
 How might cultural relativism be a took in the pursuit of universal human rights
rather than an obstacle to it?
➤Focus on female genital operations through the excerpt from Aman: Story
of a Somali Girl
B. Terms to know
cultural relativism
ethnocentrism
universal human rights
female genital operations
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are some advantages and disadvantages of long-term participantobservation as a method for collecting data about society and culture?
(Cont’d)
 What are some general characteristics of forager/hunter-gatherer societies?
➔How does the film “N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman” illustrate
typical hunter-gatherer traits as well as the predicament of huntergatherers in the present day?
B. Terms to know
Cultural ecology
subsistence strategies
hunter-gatherers/foragers
Week #4
MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 22
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are some general characteristics of forager/hunter-gatherer societies?
(cont’d)
B. Terms to know
reciprocity
“gatherer-hunters”
egalitarian individualism
original affluent society
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are some general characteristics of pastoralist societies?
➔ How does the film “People of the Wind” exemplify the pastoralist
lifestyle?
➔ What lesson does “Beating the Odds in Arid Africa” teach us about
pastoralism?
B. Terms to know
pastoralism
transhumance vs. nomadism
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What are some general characteristics of agriculturalist societies? (Cont’d)
➔ What lesson does the article “The Worst Mistake in the History of
the Human Race” teach us about agriculture?
 What are some features of the horticultural production strategy
➔What lessons does “Guarani Production” teach us about
horticulturalism?
B. Terms to know
horticulture
swidden agriculture
slash-and-burn
fallow
intercropping
extensive cultivation
inputs
intensive cultivation
mono-crop
agricultural-industrial complex
Week #5
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What basic questions does the book Wisdom from a Rainforest raise?
➔ The WfR classroom competition!
*the questions asked here are “nuts and bolts” questions–
important issues that are easily answered by the book.
B. Terms to know
Shaman
Cosmology
Animism
Polytheism
Sacred versus profane
Mediation versus law
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What do the people and places described in Wisdom from a Rainforest look
like?
➔ slides by Stuart Schlegel
 What are people’s general impressions of the book Wisdom from a Rainforest?
C. Terms to know
none
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What deeper questions does the book Wisdom from a Rainforest raise?
 What reasons do anthropologists give for the near-universal sexual division of
labor?
B. Terms to know
sexual division of labor
Strength hypothesis
Fertility maintenance hypothesis
Child care compatibility hypothesis
WEEK #6
MONDAY, OCTOBER 6
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What reasons do anthropologists give for the universal sexual division of
labor?
 Do anthropologists agree on whether there is universal oppression of
women?
o What are the views of the cultural constructionists like Margaret
Mead?
B. Terms to know
Universal sexual division of labor
Strength hypothesis
Fertility maintenance hypothesis
Child care compatibility hypothesis
Margaret Mead
cultural constructionist view of gender
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 Do anthropologists agree on whether there is universal oppression of
women? (continued)
o What are the views of the cultural constructionists like Margaret
Mead?
o What are the views of those who proclaim the universal oppression of
women?
 Is marriage the most basic tie that society is built around?
B. Terms to know
Sex versus gender
Marriage
matrifocal unit or hearthhold
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is the anthropological definition of marriage and why is it so different
from the old-fashioned definition of marriage?
 What is the cultural logic of arranged marriages?
 What is the cultural logic of polygyny?
B. Terms to know
polygamy
polygyny
polyandry
WEEK #7
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is the cultural logic of polygyny? (cont’d)
B. Terms to know
Levirate
Patrilocal/virilocal
Matrilocal/uxorilocal
neolocal
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is the cultural logic of polygyny? (cont’d)
 What questions does the case of the Mosuo people raise for anthropologists?
 What is the cultural logic of polygyny? (cont’d)
 What is the cultural logic of walking marriage?
B. Terms to know
Walking marriage/friend marriage
Bridewealth
WEEK #8
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20
A. Learning Objectives for the Day
 What is the cultural logic of polyandry?
 What is the cultural logic of woman-woman marriage?
B. Terms to know
Polyandry
Woman marriage